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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29312643">the simple way</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquidsky/pseuds/liquidsky'>liquidsky</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fate: The Winx Saga (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>And Between Dane and Beatrix, Angst, Between Riven and Beatrix, Blood and Violence, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Mind Control, Snapshots, Suicidal Thoughts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:55:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,239</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29312643</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquidsky/pseuds/liquidsky</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Riven and Dane get mind-controlled.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Beatrix/Dane/Riven (Winx Club), Dane &amp; Riven (Winx Saga), Dane/Riven (Winx Club)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the simple way</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">

        <li>
          Translation into Русский available: 
            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29946033">простой путь</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krezh12/pseuds/Krezh12">Krezh12</a>
        </li>


    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>shamelessly inspired by <i>younger days</i> by mt. joy, to the point where this might as well be called a song fic. it’s just such a good song. so good! give it a listen if you haven’t yet!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time Riven killed someone, he stood right next to the unmoving body, unmoving. He didn’t blink, didn’t look away, didn’t shift on his feet or touch his bloodied-up hands to his face nor to each other. He just stood there, watching in silence as life slid away from the soldier he’d driven his sword through. It’d been more difficult than he’d expected—in a solely physical way, harder in the sense that he’d hit bone, too, and had to apply too much strength for his sword to come out of the other side. Beside him, Dane watched, too, as blood seeped into the earth. </p><p>They looked until the skin on the body turned paper white. </p><p>They didn’t look at each other, then, but walked to the same room in silence, each slipping into his own bed.</p><p>They fell asleep. </p><p>— </p><p>After the first night, neither of them slept for another three. The days dragged slowly, pulling them along. Mundane chores, mumbling through meetings they barely paid attention to. </p><p>At every 2 a.m., without fail, Dane would slip out from under his blanket and pad quietly to Riven’s bed. They didn’t talk, not even the smallest, most mumbled little word; Dane shoved Riven to the side, every time, slid under his covers, both of them sat up with their backs against the headboard, and together they listened to music. </p><p>Riven didn’t care what the fuck they ever listened to. It was easier to hand Dane his phone and wait for him to play his unmoored indie songs. </p><p><i>If you worry, don’t worry about me</i>, it wailed, and that was the problem, wasn’t it.</p><p>— </p><p>The thing about magic was that it was, at its core and on every surface, about love. Neither of them had that, and so they were trapped. </p><p>— </p><p>The second time, he shoved both knives into each side of a soldier’s neck. Under the blood spray, Riven closed his eyes and didn’t open them again until he tumbled to the floor, shifting around not to end up trapped under the body he held with both hands. He heard the gurgling, and only opened his eyes when it stopped. He looked downwards, at his own arms, at his own clothes. A lot of black fabric clinging to his skin, wet. </p><p>Dane was hunched over, shoulders shaking, when Riven glanced at him. </p><p>He put one hand on each of his arms, and pulled him up. </p><p>Dane sat on the closed lid of the toilet while Riven showered the blood off himself. They were both crying, but neither of them said a thing. </p><p>— </p><p>It felt like they didn’t sleep for another week, until they passed out under the same covers, touching all over. </p><p>Riven didn’t dream. </p><p>— </p><p>There wasn’t anyone Riven loved enough they’d snap him out of it. It was his own fault, and that made it harder. It was his own fault that Dane didn’t have anyone either, but Dane didn’t seem to realize that. If he did, he didn’t act like he cared. </p><p>Had Riven not fucked everything up with Terra not once for himself but twice for Dane, too, maybe they’d be saved. </p><p>As it was, they endured it. </p><p>— </p><p>Killing didn’t get easier. The panic attacks set in after the fifth and sixth soldier each of them let bleed out in the field, and he’d expected they’d last the long haul, but they didn’t. Beatrix wasn’t around a lot, anymore. It was something of a relief, though, because he was scared to death of her by now, of the things he realized she’d made them do. She came to them for fucking, which was something they hadn’t done all three of them before, and Riven felt like a little like dying when she slid onto his cock with Dane kneeling beside them, muscles locked so he wouldn’t shake himself apart. </p><p>She found them, once, both of them wet and half-naked. Riven knelt under the spray, Dane sat on the corner with his knees obscuring his face. They didn’t touch but Riven felt it might have looked too much like he wanted to, because Beatrix found them like that and the next time they killed someone they showered barely moving and slipped into their own beds right after. </p><p>— </p><p>Dane sat there, staring at Riven from across their dark room, but didn’t walk over. From the beginning, Beatrix and Andreas and Rosalind figured it’d be safer for him and Dane to bunk together. He thought maybe they’d already realized it wasn’t, but they hadn’t done anything about it yet. </p><p>Riven hoped they wouldn’t. </p><p>He lowered the volume on his phone, played Dane’s song, put his phone on the floor right between their beds. </p><p><i>I always wanted to be free</i>, it sung. </p><p>Dane just looked at him. </p><p>— </p><p>Riven thought about Sky a lot. Everytime he looked at Andreas, the same odd discomfort tangled itself up inside his chest. Sky wasn’t there anymore, neither physically nor metaphorically. In truth, Riven recognized their friendship had been in trouble way before Beatrix came along. They had been too different, haunted by similar enough ghosts, but where Sky had chosen to <i>try</i>, Riven had given up entirely. </p><p>When he thought about Sky, he wondered if he was the one Riven loved enough to make it out. Riven knew everything about him. Every single thing. </p><p>So, maybe. But either way, he wasn’t there. </p><p>— </p><p>“I never wanted to be a soldier,” Dane said. The song said, <i>I always wanted to be free</i>, and Dane added, “I did it because it’s just what you do, but I never thought—“ </p><p>Riven said, “I know,” because he did. He’d never wanted to be a soldier either. He’d fancied himself rebellious, and it’d made him go looking for Beatrix. </p><p>Rebels, the three of them. What a fucking joke. </p><p>— </p><p>Riven watched Dane sleep, sometimes, when he could. They didn’t crowd themselves on top of Riven’s bed anymore, so when Dane fell asleep it was under his own duvet. He had his head turned toward Riven every time, and Riven understood that they couldn’t bridge the space between them, that at night a single step toward Dane’s side of the room made his head spin, his sinuses catch on fire. The first time he’d tried, he’d half-expect his brain to melt and start leaking out of his ears.</p><p>Dane had watched him do it, so neither of them tried it again after that. </p><p>— </p><p>The next time the three of them fucked, mid-afternoon on a sunny Sunday, Beatrix had barely left the room before Dane was leaning off the side of the bed and spewing. Riven touched his back, palms rubbing up and down until Dane turned his head to look at Riven. </p><p>Riven pat him on the back twice before kneeling down to clean up his puke. He’d never done this before, for anyone else, and no one except Sky had ever done it for him. He thought he’d find it grosser than he did; he’d seen Dane’s blood and his spit and his snot and everything else of his, too. It didn’t matter.</p><p>Perched up on his own bed, slightly back-lit, Dane looked at nothing in particular and said, very quietly, “I can’t do this anymore.”</p><p>“Dane,” said Riven. One of the rare occasions he actually said Dane’s name. He paused and looked back at him, serious, until Dane met his eyes. </p><p>“I just—“ he said, “I just can’t. None of it. I—” </p><p>“With Beatrix, we don’t have to—“ </p><p>“Yeah, Riven, we fucking do,” and Riven couldn’t argue, not really. “They can make us want it, you <i>know</i> that. And I don’t—I <i>can’t</i> want it, I just can’t.”</p><p>Riven said, “I know,” and couldn’t say <i>it’s gonna be okay,</i> because it wasn’t, and he’d never said that before in his life. “Just don’t—don’t do anything stupid, alright, I’ll figure something out.”</p><p>“What’s there to figure out?” Dane said, laughing humorlessly, eyes all wet. He sniffed when the first tear tracked down his face. </p><p>— </p><p>Once Riven had cleaned up the floor, he and Dane sat down by the foot of his bed, glued together. He handed his phone to him again. </p><p><i>I always wanted to be free</i>, it said. </p><p>They stared out the window until the day grew dark.</p><p>— </p><p>Riven went after Beatrix alone. Shoved her against the wall, kissed her lips and her chin and down her throat, hands all over her. He said, “Want you all to myself,” and she laughed in his face a little mean, but he was kneeling on the floor and lifting up her skirt before she had the chance to tell him off.</p><p>— </p><p>Dane stared at him from his side of the room when Riven slipped back inside. </p><p>“Riven,” he said, sad-sounding. </p><p>Riven shrugged off his jacket, hung it up on the chair. He toe’d off his shoes, said, “Don’t worry about it.”</p><p>“Okay,” Dane told him. Riven could feel his eyes follow him as he walked toward the bathroom. “Thank you.”</p><p>— </p><p><i>There’s two ways it goes now</i>, the song echoed quietly. </p><p>Dane and Riven watched each other until they fell asleep. </p><p>— </p><p>Riven went to Beatrix often. He’d try his best to sound possessive, to touch her with firm hands and enough conviction that she’d never doubt he was there because he wanted to be. He put his lips and his tongue all over her, took the confident touch of her hands for what it was. </p><p>— </p><p>“I hate this,” Dane said, eyes tracking him as he took off his clothes. </p><p>Riven said, “You’re welcome,” and Dane didn’t flinch.</p><p>— </p><p>“Thank you,” Dane said. <i>Waiting on the words to come down. </i> It followed them as they moved around each other inside their bedroom. </p><p>— </p><p>Riven scrubbed the blood from under Dane’s nails in the morning. There’d been an assignment, and blood, and both of them breathing in the same air as they’d climbed quietly up the stairs. </p><p>— </p><p>Beatrix had sucked a hickey into his neck. Dane saw it, got up from his bed and walked on his side of the room to cross it only when he got to the bathroom door. He followed Riven in, and Riven watched him wince, watched him wipe a trickle of blood from under his nose. </p><p>“Doesn’t it hurt?” </p><p>“Yeah,” Dane said, “It does.”</p><p>— </p><p>Riven and Dane stalked quietly away from the building and onto the fields. They had enough gloom building between them that it was hard to stay so silent. </p><p>Dane muttered, “The sweetest killers hanging around,” and Riven recognized the line right away. When he glanced at him, Dane was frowning. </p><p>“I never thought I’d be here either,” Riven told him, “Always thought ‘bout ditching school. Fuck the system, you know?”</p><p>Dane didn’t smile, exactly, but he turned his head to watch Riven as he spoke. </p><p>“Wasn’t ever good for much other than fighting. I’ve always been good at fighting. Kind of wish I weren’t.” </p><p>“You’re good at more than fighting,” Dane argued. And it <i>was</i> an argument, with how earnest he sounded. Riven waited for him to add whatever he wanted to. “You’ve got a pretty good singing voice, you know.”</p><p>He couldn’t help snorting, “Wow, <i>pretty good</i>. Such ringing endorsement.” </p><p>“You’re also <i>pretty good</i> at whistling. And like, other things.”</p><p>“Such as?” Riven said, just because. He didn’t expect Dane to have a mental catalogue on it or anything, but it couldn’t hurt.</p><p>Dane had a list. <i>You’re pretty good at folding clothes, your penmanship is not terrible, you’re okay at washing hair, you have good taste in cologne</i>. Riven watched him say all of it, both of them still walking toward their next shared nightmare.</p><p>“Seems like you’ve been paying attention,” Riven told him, because it did.</p><p>Dane rolled his eyes, looking like <i>Dane</i>. Riven thought he must look like himself too. </p><p>It couldn’t hurt, feeling just a little more human.</p><p>— </p><p>It did hurt. </p><p>Dane was bleeding, and Riven didn’t feel strong enough to carry so much of his weight up a hill but was doing it anyway. He’d hesitated. They didn’t, as a rule, because they weren’t told to, and when it set in they could only really do as they were told.</p><p>But Dane had hesitated; he’d ended up slicing the guy’s throat open anyway, but only after he’d been stabbed, too. Riven had seen the knife plunge into Dane’s side too late. By the time he got to him Dane’d already been stumbling. </p><p>“We’re almost there,” Riven grunted, “Almost there.”</p><p>Dane mumbled, “I don’t think—“</p><p>“Shut the fuck up,” Riven said, weird and desperate, “I always wanted you to see the California coast-line,” he sang, hoarse, but Dane laughed a little anyway. </p><p>He coughed out, “I always wanted to be free,” and gurgled a little. “If you—<i>Riven,</i>”</p><p>“Dane,”</p><p>“You’d have left me there,” all the words fumbled, wet-sounding, “if you wanted me to be—“</p><p>—</p><p>Riven took him to Beatrix. Not possessing any magic himself, he was made to stand outside with his useless bloody hands shoved inside his pockets. </p><p><i>If I don’t wake up trace me on the asphalt</i>, he thought, waiting.</p><p>— </p><p>Waiting, waiting, waiting. </p><p>— </p><p>Beatrix came out eventually. He was sat on the floor and so she sat next to him. They could make him forget, if they wanted to. She tried touching his hand, and Riven tried not to but flinched anyway. </p><p>“Did he hesitate?” </p><p>“No,” Riven said, but it sounded like a lie even to him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>all the ending had me thinking about was that they were about to get mind-fucked to hell and back. so this is a product of me feelings like that was an interesting aspect to explore. i’m not like, the most sympathetic to beatrix here, even though i actually really like her in the show. this story will be followed by another with more explicit dane/riven and, like, the actual aftermath of dane surviving getting stabbed and being alive to get fucked over some more. i also left the rating here as explicit cause i figured it’d rather be safe than sorry.</p><p>this story wasn't beta'd, so any and all typos/mistakes here are my own. feel free to let me know your thoughts and/or feelings below, comments are always appreciated! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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